The Flow

UV 2227/10000 The Flow
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water
John 7 v 38

The quality of the source of a river determines the size, the course, the nature of the river whether it is perennial or a merely rain-fed river that dry up in summer when the water is most needed. All rivers flow to the coast where the fresh water mixes with the salt water of the seas and becomes unfit to drink or to sustain life on land. Unlike earthly rivers, our spiritual rivers start and finish in a refreshening living water sea- Jesus. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith and of our lives, implying that our living rivers or the rivers that sustain us start and finish in Him. The living waters of these rivers that constantly flow from the heart or innermost being of the believers in Jesus are rivers of love, joy, hope, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness , humility and self control. These are the nine rivers that Jesus said flows concurrently from our hearts and souls. The river Jordan starts as a spring that never dries up in the heights of the mountains of northern Israel. Similarly, the difficulties, challenges, hardship of our lives are the areas where our rivers rise. No hard rock can stop the soft water from flowing. So also, no hard circumstance can stop us from manifesting the manifold grace of Jesus in our lives. We only need to flow over, through or around the hard rocks of our lives.

Living waters are waters that enable us to live healthy, wholesome, balanced, effective, productive, creative, worthy lives. There are no impurities or particulates or foreign bodies mixed with the living waters. If it is love, it needs to be pure and unadulterated love not mixed with selfish motives. It is the agape love of Jesus. If it is joy, it needs to be the joy of the Lord that is eternal and stable and not effervescent or transient like the joy of the world. If it is hope, it is eternal assurance of living forever, it is hope of deliverance from all our afflictions in this world. If it is peace, it is the peace that this world cannot give or take away. It is the peace that passes human understanding and beyond human circumstances. If it is patience, we need to be patient and wait knowing that what we hope for will happen in due time or God’s time. If it is kindness, it is kindness to all people and creatures and not just to one’s own kind. If it is goodness, it is not motivated by the thought of personal fame or good name but to glorify our Father in heaven even as Jesus did in all that He said and did. If it is faithfulness, it is being faithful in the little things as in the greater issues of life. If it is humility, it is being Christ-like in submitting to the will and sovereignty of the Father. Self control needs to be in evidence in the way we submit our tongue, our talents, our time, our temperament, our thoughts to the leading of the Holy Spirit, the way we order our conversation as well as our daily habits.

A river is in constant flow. Psychologists say that our lives are always in a fight or flight mode. But Jesus said that our lives should always be like the flow of a gushing river. Our lives should flow continually with the fruit of the Spirit and not occasionally. A river is life-giving and life-enhancing. Likewise, our attributes, attitudes, actions and reactions should be life-giving, life enhancing. A river brings water and so it nourishes and causes to flourish all who come to its banks. Likewise, we should carry the living waters of hope and meaning and power to the hopeless, meaningless and powerless. A river brings healing and moisture to a land of drought. Likewise, we should bring healing and deliverance to all who come in contact with us. No longer do modern Naamans have to take seven dips in a river. All they need to be healed are the words we speak to them. All types of trees grow on both sides of rivers, some meant to give wood, some to give food, some to give leaves and fruit meant for healing of the nations. Likewise, we give rise to the growth of fruit trees, medicinal plants whose leaves do not wither and whose fruit is never fully consumed. Like the trees on both banks of the river of paradise, we bring forth a different fruit every month.

Prateep V Philip